A California woman has apologized to a Filipino man after she and her husband called the police on the man as he stenciled the words "Black Lives Matter" onto his own wall.
Per ABC7, James Juanillo identifies as a person of color, and as a way of showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, he made the decision to stencil the words in chalk onto his own property.
However, in a video uploaded to social media by Juanillo on Friday, a white couple - now confirmed to be Lisa Alexander and her husband Robert - approached him as he was marking his property and told him that they were calling the police as they "knew" he didn't live in the building.
You can see their tense interaction in the video below:Now, after the footage went viral on social media, Lisa Alexander has issued an apology to Juanillo for her "racist" actions.
In a statement shared to Twitter by ABC News reporter Luz Peña, Alexander says:
"I want to apologize directly to Mr. Juanillo. There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision to question him about what he was doing in front of his home. I should have minded my own business.
"The last 48 hours has taught me that my actions were those of someone who is not aware of the damage caused by being ignorant and naive to racial inequalities.
"When I watch the video I am shocked and sad that I behaved the way I did. It was disrespectful to Mr. Juanillo and I am deeply sorry for that. I did not realize at the time that my actions were racist and have learned a painful lesson.
"I am taking a hard look at the meaning behind white privilege and am committed to growing from this experience.
"I would love to have coffee with Mr. Juanillo in our neighborhood so I can apologize in person and share a dialogue where I can continue to learn and grow and be a better person."
In the video, Lisa and Robert tell Juanillo that he was illegally writing on the retaining wall because it was "private property" and that she knew the owner. However, this was not true and Juanillo does indeed live in the property.
After a tense stand-off, the couple then tells Juanillo that they were going to call the police, which they did.
Writing alongside the video on Twitter, Juanillo said:
"A white couple call the police on me, a person of color, for stencilling a #BLM chalk message on my own front retaining wall. 'Karen' lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here. #blacklivesmatter".
(According to Dictionary.com, 'Karen' is a "mocking slang term for an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman.")
Speaking to ABC7, Juanillo told the station: "She thought this was devaluing someone's property. She knew it was chalk, she knew this would wash away in the rain. That leaves only the message to be problematic."
Juanillo then explained what happened when officers did eventually arrive at his property:
"The police came and recognized me immediately as a resident of the house and left without getting out of their patrol car. I didn't even show them my ID."
One of the owners of the property, Brad Gilbertson, told the news station that he does not know Lisa Alexander or her husband.
Gilbertson said: "She just claimed she knew the owner of the house. She doesn't know me. I thought she was out of line."
Despite only giving her first name in the video, several social media users were still able to identify her as Lisa Alexander, the CEO of LAFACE Skincare.
In response to being flooded with complaints by social media users, beauty company Birchbox announced in a statement on Twitter that they will "officially cut ties" with LAFACE following "the CEO's actions".
They wrote to their 168,000+ Twitter followers: "We have not worked with LAFACE for several years and, as a result of the CEO's actions today, have officially cut ties with them."
In an interview with NBC Bay Area, Juanillo shared what the video does not show, telling the news outlet:
"What the video on Twitter doesn't show is the 95% of residents and neighbors who while I was putting this up gave me a fist, or made eye contact and smile, or just flat out said thank you."
He added that he believes he was approached because he is a person of color, and the couple suspected him of tagging on someone else's property.
In response to this, Juanillo says: "Makes me feel like we all need to fight. When you see racism...speak your truth. Don't let it go, it's time."